2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS
We downloaded data covering the COVID-19 pandemic until June 27, 2020,
from Our World In Data (Max et al. 2020). This global database is
updated daily and offer free access to country-level information on
various pandemic related indicators. The data used in this study are
total confirmed cases, daily new cases, total deaths, and daily new
deaths, which is sufficient to build and assess statistical models. Data
were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows software, Version
21.0. (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY) for statistical analysis. We calculated
mean values of above-mentioned variables for three time periods: during
lockdown [(first four-weeks of lockdown (March 22nd to April 18th) and
last four-weeks of lockdown (April 12th to May 8th)], and four-weeks
after lockdown lifting (May 9th to June 6th). The calculation of mean
scores was based on both raw variables and “normalized” by the number
of checks performed during the same time periods. We used paired sample
t tests to compare means of variables between post-lockdown-lifting
period and two lockdown periods (i.e., first and last four-weeks).